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The common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) hardly needs an introduction. It is one of only a few plants that the vast majority of those inhabiting temperate climates worldwide can easily recognize. Many of these same people are very likely to have interacted with dandelions in a meaningful way as well, whether as a child wishing upon the wispy seed heads or frustratingly attempting to remove them from a garden.

Yet as you will see, this lowly weed is not only both edible & medicinal but is also an excellent conduit in which we may learn about ourselves as a species, how we have fundamentally changed the world’s ecology and how we should best react to our changing environments and landscapes. Understanding the life cycle of and experiencing dandelions first hand as an edible or medicinal herb will help to shed light on what this one plant among countless others can teach us.

Well this is wholly unexpected post for a number of different reasons, the main being that I actually have something to show for an entirely last-minute experiment in October of last year (2015) when I decided to ferment some of the sweet cider that Heart’s Content Farm presses from the five ancient resident apple trees. There was honestly only about 2 minutes of thought put into the whole thing, and so to say the least I am very pleased with how it turned out. (more…)